Princess Margaret’s tragic romance with Peter Townsend may have been one of The Crown’s best early story lines—two young lovers prevented from living happily ever after because Townsend’s status as a divorcé clashed with the queen’s enforcement of the Church of England’s rules. Oh, how times have changed. In season five’s “Annus Horribilis,” which is devoted to that famously bad year of 1992 for British royals, Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton) finds herself white-knuckling through three of her four children’s separations or divorces, each accompanied by its own tabloid scandal. Margaret, meanwhile, now played by the Oscar nominee Lesley Manville, hears from Townsend (Timothy Dalton) for the first time since breaking off their engagement some 40 years before.
The former lovers reunite at a reception at London’s Caledonian Club, where Margaret smokes from her trademark long cigarette, steals looks at her former fiancé, and shares one final dance with him. During the scene, Margaret—who has been hardened by years of heartbreak—suddenly softens, genuine joy and delight filling her face in a way it hasn’t since season one. But the ball must come to a close—and after hours of singing, dancing, and luxuriating in familiar warm feelings—Townsend pierces their dreamy bubble by handing over the love letters she wrote him, a gesture of finality and closure.
The real-life reunion between the princess and Townsend occurred at Kensington Palace over lunch in the summer of 1992. According to Tim Heald’s Princess Margaret: A Life Unraveled, Townsend was joined by two longtime friends—one of whom “recalled that it was a strange and mildly embarrassing meal as the Princess and Townsend talked quietly and intimately together while the other guests conversed among themselves and pretended that the effectively private conversation taking place in their midst was the most natural thing in the world.” Christopher Warwick’s biography Princess Margaret: A Life of Contrasts claims that Townsend and the princess followed lunch with a walk through the gardens. “Afterwards, as Townsend drove away, she waved goodbye with a pocket handkerchief,” wrote Heald. “Then, walking back into the apartment, the Princess turned to her private secretary and said words to the effect that he was just as she remembered him except that his hair had turned grey.”
Peter Townsend and Princess Margaret in 1955.By ullstein bild/Getty Images.
In a conversation with Vanity Fair, Manville spoke about filming creator Peter Morgan’s reimagining of the reunion.
“It’s very tender and very touching. Just seeing them look at each other—that pool of memory and that wealth of love and emotion that they shared together when they were younger is suddenly remembered by both of them,” the actor says over Zoom. “It’s very beautiful. Of course they have this great evening together and she’s very spirited—singing, messing around, and telling jokes—and he’s witnessing that and thinking of all the life that maybe he hasn’t had. It also reminds her about what she was denied and how her life might have taken a different route if she’d have been able to marry him. And how she feels about that, specifically in the light of the queen’s children enjoying a freedom that Margaret did not enjoy—a freedom in terms of who they can be with.”
In the episode, Margaret encourages Princess Anne (Claudia Harrison) to pursue a romance with Timothy Laurence, a former aide to the queen. (Shortly after Anne divorced her first husband, Mark Phillips, in 1992, she married Laurence, making her the first close relative of a British monarch to divorce and remarry.) In another scene, Margaret furiously confronts her sister about refusing her happiness by preventing her marriage to Townsend, speaking to the queen in a way that no other person likely could.
“It kind of hits her that her life has been compromised and she’s not perhaps had the life that she wanted,” says Manville, revealing that it was an actor’s dream of a scene to explore. “It’s all tied up in this time of her life that has to do with a loneliness—understanding that the history of her life has been played out, and this is where she’s left…We can all do that—look back on our lives and think, what if? But she does see it as some sort of injustice that, just because of the time she was born in, and her sister being the queen, she hasn’t been allowed to have, in her opinion, the man she loved and wanted to be with. I find the scene very powerful and shocking and brutal. It makes you feel for Margaret in a way that maybe the audience didn’t quite expect to feel for her.”
To prepare for the role, Manville listened to the few audio tapes available of the princess during the ’90s, including an appearance Margaret made on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs, which is recreated in the episode. She also spoke to several mutual friends who happened to know the late royal, given her passion for the arts.
Julie Miller
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